Technical Support

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How do I upgrade from version 12.0?

Please uninstall version 12.0 from the Control Panel, then Download the new version and install it. Please see the help file "Upgrade Guide" for major changes in the new version.

Q. How can I model a Plane Frame or Truss?

Draw your model in one plane (e.g. XY), then make sure to add out-of-plane supports. You must fix nodes so as to prevent translation in X, Y, and Z and also rotation about these axes. To model a truss you would use member element end-releases to prevent moment-transfer between members at a joint. For a 'pure', academic truss you may want to disable Self Weight in the "D" service load case!

Q. I cannot download with my gmail address?

We are now requiring an educational email address for access to the product. You cannot use a .com or .net email address. Most schools in the USA offer a .edu or .org type email.

Q. Does the educational product expire?

A. Yes, the current product-version will expire in September 2018. Students will need to be renew their registration a couple times per year.

Q. Does my student-license expire?

A. Your ability to run the student version will expire after a few years. If you go on to graduate school, or if you are a faculty or staff member, please contact us using the support email below so we can verify your status and update or remove your expiration.

Q. Setup fails. Now what?

Q. How can I get an update or patch?

A. If the date listed above is newer, download and install the latest release.Please uninstall the previous version using Control Panel, before installing the new version.

Q. How do I get a license?

A. VisualAnalysis edu uses the Internet and your educational email for licensing. We have simplified the registration process, simply download and install. After running, select your school and enter your name and email, and click Register. You should only have to register once every several months.

Q. I need feature XY or Z. How can I get that?

A. The educational version has what we believe are the 'required' set of features for teaching and learning structural analysis. If you feel like you need additional features, you may purchase a commercial license.

Q. My school is not in the USA or Canada?

A. The educational version is only available to schools in the USA or Canada that have civil/structural degree programs and related fields. We do not explicitly support USA schools operating in foreign countries, high schools, or community colleges.

Q. How can I learn VisualAnalysis?

A. VisualAnalysis is completely documented and the help includes many free training videos that are available for the commercial version of the product.

Professors, instructors, and school IT staff may email edu-support@iesweb.com. Please include a project file, pictures, or PDF document as necessary to demontrate or explain the issue.

Are You Registered?

Setting Up a Student Lab

VisualAnalysis Edu should work fine in your student lab. Because each lab has different setup methods or IT approach, we have tried to make a generic solution that should work for everybody. You must have previously registered as a faculty member with IES! If you are not sure, please email us to confirm your status.

To set up the license so that any person using the machine can use the software, you must manually copy the license file from your AppData folder to the ProgramData folder so that all login users have access.

Licensing Instructions

Install the product on each machine (or your master image), but do not run it.

Run VisualAnalysis as an administrator
(right-click on the icon and use Run As Administrator)

Register it with your registered faculty email address.

There should be a license file created in both locations:
C:\Users\<your.login>\AppData\Local\IES\License\VisualAnalysisEdu.okC:\ProgramData\IES\License\VisualAnalysisEdu.ok

You may manually copy the license file to the C:\ProgramData\IES\License folder on any school machine, to skip having to register each machine.

Students and Lab Machines

Students who use the lab machines should be able to just "run", they should not try to register with their own email. Student access is limited to a couple 'personal' computers. Students may download and use their own login-email when using their own personal machines.

Troubleshooting

If licensing is not working, then the quickest likely solution is probably this:

Uninstall VisualAnalysis

Remove the license files (both locations, if any)

Download the latest update

Email IES to verify your educational status, using the email address you wish to use

Start over with the instructions above.

If these do not work, please tell us exactly when things go wrong, what messages you get (you can email a screen capture) and we can help diagnose the issue. The software does need to connect to the Internet to validate the license on each run.